Well I posted this little ride on three forums, guess ADVers are the only ones who will commit

A meet point was arranged at a McDonald's Richmond, near the foot of the Mountains.

Coffee while waiting for possible arrivals and a quick surf of the appropriate forums confirmed there would only be the two of us.

A link to a google map of the route we took [done in bicycle mode because google won't let me plot dirt roads in car mode].http://goo.gl/maps/ZpyLl

Heading up through North Richmond with a quick fuel stop at the BP [the range on my KLE is about 230 km to reserve, theoretical to empty is 345 km, but I doubt it would be "real world" figures], then up the Old Bell's Line of Road to Kurrajong rather than via the main Bell's Line saw us with less traffic and more curves.

Heading up towards Bilpin I took Glen on a surprise little dirt section by making a right turn off the road in the middle of a hairpin corner....bet that caught him unaware's

Turning off on the Mountain Lagoon Road gave some good sweeping bends on tar, then on to the dirt with a detour to go up a dead end track that makes you feel like you are really actually doing some proper "adventure" riding.

This is a stop point common to many of my rides through this section.

Back out and onwards until we bisected Comleroy Road north of Wheeny Creek, then down to Upper Colo with another photo stop at the boundary of the Wollemi National Park [I suspect Glen was contemplating if he could jump on my KLE and take off before I realised it ].

A quick burst of tar put us at the bridge over the Colo River.

More dirt on the Colo Heights Road put us up on to the Putty Road, although this is an iconic riders road we were only on it for a couple of hundred metres.

On the way up we did try this little "skills" section though.
This is actually steeper than it looks and disappears up around behind the trees to the right, with some more bumpy stuff to catch you out if you are not paying attention.
Glen and the Dakar made it look easy going up as well as coming back down, my KLE acquitted itself very well up against the dirt specced 650GS as well.

Wheelbarrow Ridge Road to Wheelbarrow Ridge Track was the next leg.
Although the Track is normally reasonably challenging for riders with only moderate dirt skills, it has recently been graded and is no more difficult than any of the other dirt sections we had been on to that point.

This picture was taken on previous ride from a vantage point that neither Glen nor I felt up to trying to ride up to, being a bit warm at this point and in need of a feed and a cool drink we decided not to walk up to it either [next time Glen, the photo is nowhere near as impressive as standing on the precipice looking down on it for real ]

Down to the Webb Creek Ferry, over the river in to Wiseman's for me to refuel [easier to keep the tank full when I can rather than run dry and end up walking- although I was carrying a 5 litre jerry just in case].

Lunch and a cold drink at the kiosk next to the Wiseman's Ferry while watching other bikes and cars crossing kept us amused for a while.

From this point on I didn't take any more photos as the day was starting to get away from us time wise.

Back on the bikes and over the ferry, left to St Alban's- mainly tar with a section of dirt around ten kilometres long in the middle.

More dirt from St Alban's to Bucketty, then back on tar to Jerry's Cafe at Kulnura for another cold drink.

Then tar all the way back down to Wiseman's Ferry via Mangrove Mountain and Spencer, over the ferry and up to Maroota where we went our separate ways towards home.

I covered somewhere around 270 km for the day over about ten hours- including coffee at Maccas to start the day along with other stops during the course of the ride.

Thank you to The Colonel [Glen] for the great company along the way, I hope we can do another ride in the near future- maybe a few more will manage to join in next time as well

I can't remember exactly what stretch of the ride this pic was taken on, but it is typical of much of the ride route we took during the course of the day and I don't think anything further needs to be added after this "parting shot".

I too take pleasure in reading ride reports from other people/regions as it allows me to ride vicariously through what they write and the pictures they post up on the forums.

My current steeds are the '94 KLE500 seen in this RR and an '09 Wee-Strom, both are set up for touring and the Wee is reasonably dirt capable [the KLE is far more dirt capable though and I can do single track trails on it as well].

I ride pretty much all year round including commuting and long distance touring, but don't generally have to contend with snow [unless caught out on a mountain ride, so far I've been lucky with that], plenty of heat in summer, sometimes black ice on roads in winter though.

And we've just had an absolute bucketing of rain overnight all the way down the east coast of Australia, houses flooded, some fatalities up in Queensland, road closures and damage across two states so far.

We are ok in our area and no threat of our home flooding at this stage, although a few of the ADV forum members in Queensland and northern NSW are having some issues with water in their houses and no power for the last 24/48 hours.
Many have only just started to rebuild their homes and lives after the major floods in 2011 and now they are under water again.

Thanks Mike,
And we've just had an absolute bucketing of rain overnight all the way down the east coast of Australia, houses flooded, some fatalities up in Queensland, road closures and damage across two states so far.

We are ok in our area and no threat of our home flooding at this stage, although a few of the ADV forum members in Queensland and northern NSW are having some issues with water in their houses and no power for the last 24/48 hours.
Many have only just started to rebuild their homes and lives after the major floods in 2011 and now they are under water again.

Cheers,
Ock.

Your weather made national news here last night. Looks like quite a storm! Hunker down and stay safe.

Cool write up Steve, I too had a great ride and good to add another AVD under the belt.
So I did a bit more K's than you of course. I think it was around 380km for me. I actually made it all the way home without filling up again and the fuel light still had not come on at 336km.
I may as well add my pics to the thread as well...